George Karl had intended it to be a James Bond-style secret weapon more than an ‘If in an emergency, break glass’ thing, but the Ty Lawson/Raymond Felton combo may become more of a necessity now than a change of pace.

Arron Afflalo’s hamstring will not allow him to play in Game 1 against the Thunder. The Nuggets have to adjust on the fly. The biggest thing the Nuggets miss without Afflalo is 3-point shooting, he was one of the team’s most reliable long-range marksmen at 42.3 percent. Now? Felton moves into that spot. He’s nailed 45 percent of them since he’s been a Nugget, but does it more as a spot-up shooter and sometimes in transition. Afflalo, as the shooting guard, was more versatile. He could spot up, hit in transition and come off of screens to hit threes.

As a primary ball handler, Felton doesn’t normally run off of screens. Tendencies show that in a pick-and-roll situations he’s not going to look to come up firing before he checks out the passing possibilities first. Karl may not start the Lawson/Felton duo – he still has reserve point guard minutes to keep in mind, and the Nuggets don’t have a third point guard – but the two might be used at the same time as much as they have since the trade.

This is not a super sore spot for Nuggets coach George Karl but he’ll jump to Ty Lawson’s rescue when the subject turns to the reduced effectiveness of his starting point guard in half court situations, particularly in pick-and-roll plays.

“He’s got a great assist-to-turnover ratio,” Karl said. And he’s right. Lawson has a robust, 4-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio this season. There’s no arguing the value in that.

But then there’s this. Ty Lawson had 137 total turnovers this season. Over 100 of them came in various half court situations. Against the Thunder, Lawson turned it over 12 times in the four games. Eleven of the 12 turnovers occurred in the half court, and eight of those came on the pick-and-roll when he handled the ball. So, 66 percent of his turnovers against OKC came in pick-and-roll situations. When you’re facing a team that has been as solid at getting back and cutting off transition as OKC has against Denver this season, Lawson has to improve.

Chris Dempsey arrived at The Denver Post in Dec. 2003 after seven years at the Boulder Daily Camera, where he primarily covered the University of Colorado football and men's basketball teams. A University of Colorado-Boulder alumnus, Dempsey covers the Nuggets and also chips in on college sports.